Criminal || An Alice in Borderland Story

|| Episode 12 ||

Chishiya walked up to his probable death. He gripped the door handle and opened it. There he is, his target. Niragi Suguru.

"Don't you get tired of bullying people weaker than you?" Chishiya slowly approached Niragi, careful enough to be far away from him but close enough to attack.

Niragi glared at him, stopping his kills. "You really get on my nerves all the time!" He shouted, anger intensified. "You always act like you're so clever."

Chishiya smirked, finding the irony of being called out for something Shion is. "But I am clever."

Niragi scoffed in disbelief. "Not as much as she is.." he muttered and a tinge of sadness was in his eyes.

Chishiya heard, caught it and almost pitied the guy. He watched as Niragi stood up, holding his gun.

Every fibre of this man Chishiya hates is in the form of the girl's blood. It could've been a whole lot easier if they're nothing more than enemies or acquaintances even but no, they're under the guise of a couple exposed as siblings - no less her being older than him. Chishiya is still in disbelief to this day that the man before him and the woman he vows to protect are related.

"I'll be blunt so hear me out." His look might be calm but it doesn't hide away the anger in his voice.

Niragi sighed and looked at him, expecting a chain of smart words and information. "It's better be good or else I'll shoot your head right away."

Chishiya snorted. "It doesn't make sense. You and Shion.." He saw Niragi turn into confusion the moment he mentioned her name.

Niragi cocked his head to the side. "So I've been told..." He trailed off and tried to look through Chishiya, still remembering certain things his sister told him. "..what of it?"

"All her life even before coming here, she's been giving you everything you want and you've done nothing more than taking advantage of it." Chishiya knew then that saying it would hit a nerve not just in Niragi but in Shion as well.

For Shion, he doesn't know yet how she would react but for her brother here, it grew his anger. "The business between my sister and I doesn't concern you at all. Don't act like you've been there in all our lives."

Niragi raised his gun at Chishiya, making sure of his threat earlier. Chishiya holds onto his smirk, wanting to tell him everything he ever thought of Shiom. The things he wanted to say to her but couldn't, not for the sake of annoying the heck out of him but for the sake of showing Niragi what he had done to her although the latter is true.

"No matter how you think she's this scary, out of control mad woman, She is scared of youhe wants yo, the real you now. She wanted you back into the person she claimed you to be."

"She's directing you into a good or better path." Chishiya looked ahead. 'The same will go for me' he thought, realising that what he did to Arisu and Usagi was indeed wrong and if it weren't for Shion, he would've done the same thing to Kuina as well or more people.

"How do you know what's good for me? How do you know she feels that way? You barely know anything about her!" Niragi shouted, interrupting Chishiya's thoughts. "You took her away from me just for some sick game you played!"

Chishiya turned to Niragi, and his anger came out. He gripped his fists inside of his pockets, biting his lip for himself not to lose it. "That's not the case at all." He calmly said.

Niragi gripped his gun and raised it at Chishiya again. The look on his face says it all and it made him even more angry.

This sneaky bastard spoke so highly of his sister. How many moments between the two has he missed? How many of those could he have prevented?

Niragi's shoulders started going up and down due to his anger rising. The very thought that Chishiya stole Shion away from him drives him mad. More so than what she had done to him and the possibility that Chishiya brainwashed her comes to mind.

'There's no way you would fall for his lies. You're smarter than him. You're smarter than anyone here. You're the smartest person I know, Shion. So how?' he thought.

"I love her."

Niragi staggered back, lowering his gun in an instant. He couldn't catch it right. What Chishiya just uttered so softly.

"I love your sister."

He gasped and walked forward before stopping himself. "You.." he panted.

Chishiya smiled. Actually and positively smiled like truly a man in love and Niragi can see it clearly. "I know her enough to love her and if you say one more time that I don't know anything at all about her, I will continue to know her when you're gone."

He's flabbergasted and so is Chishiya. Both of them didn't expect any of this to blow up. For Niragi, he didn't expect Chishiya, out of all people, to be able to love a woman like Shion, no less his sister. For Chishiya, he didn't expect himself to blow this out of proportion but he meant it. Every word of it.

"Love was meaningless. It's fickle and stupid. But with her, it just happens. With her.." he looked down, a smile slowly reaching up to him.

"It's like everything feels better."

Chishiya then glared at Niragi. "If it weren't for her, my simple reason would be that I'll kill every executive since the hotel's power source has changed and only you guys have the key to access it."

Niragi turned hard once more, raising his gun. "Is that so?"

Chishiya smirked. "Then when I found out how much pain you have put her into, I'd figure out a better reason and more to kill you and only you or anyone else might be put in line."

Niragi scoffed and glared at Chishiya. "I should've blown your brains out the moment we met." Readying himself to shoot at Chishiya, he has a little doubt in his mind that if he does this, Shion would never see him again.

But then Chishiya is doing the same thing. "Do you think that killing her brother is going to make her love you?"

Chishiya chuckled at that sense of irony. "Do you think that killing people is going to make her stay with you?" Niragi's eye twitched in anger.

"She left you when she's given an opportunity to provide money which you gambled away, but her departure shaped you into becoming this." He said matter-of-factly. "You don't want her to leave you again so you keep killing people who have expressed any desire for her and publicly lied about your relationship to keep her to yourself."

Chishiya won. Niragi couldn't deny it. He's been depending on his sister for so long it hurts to see her leave him to his despair which led to more horrendous bullying but no prevention. No protection. No love.. from her and it drove him into this person. This so-called monster she spelt it out for him earlier.

Niragi didn't even realise that he already lost her the moment he became this.

The moment he beat Arisu to a pulp just because the boy mentioned her, implying anything happened between him and Shion.

The moment Chishiya took her heart. Her love.

Niragi glared at him even more, jealousy incarnate. "Let's put an end to this and let's see who deserves her love more.."

This is it, Chishiya feels it. No more delaying. No more turning back.

This is his death and he greets it with a smile. "Ah.."

With his own gun in his hand hidden from plain sight, Chishiya runs towards Niragi who quickly lowers his gun to shoot directly at his face but Chishiya tosses something out in the air, the cards of which Hatter took possession in.

"What the hell was that?!" He glared at Chishiya, not wanting to be distracted. He's about to directly shoot at him.

Niragi perked up though, lessening his tight grip on his gun, at the sound of her voice he hoped to hear again. "Shion.."

For a moment there, Niragi could see her. The older sister in his life. It was him and her together against the world but tonight's the end between them.